Exploring the Champions League First Round and Belarus in Women's Football: Analysis by Expert Tim Grainey

In these early rounds, viewers have the opportunity to see teams that aren't usually in the spotlight, such as the Armenian league champions Pyunik, who have four Iranian internationals on their roster. The Champions Path consists of 11 groups - ten with four teams each and one with three teams, while the League Path includes four groups of four teams. In this update, we'll be focusing on the outcomes of matches in Groups 1-8 in the Champions Path.

Also from Europe, we review football in Belarus, as their teams are still playing in UEFA Club and national team competitions despite their alliance with Russia—who have been suspended by UEFA for over two years—for the war in Ukraine.

2024-25 UEFA Women’s Champions League First Round Qualifying Group Matches

For the 2024-25 UEFA Women’s Champions League, Round 1 involved two paths: the Champions path and the League path, with each involving knockout matches in mini-tournaments hosted by one of the group teams, with semi-finals on September 4 and finals/third-place play-offs on September 7. The winners of each final (11 in the champions path, four in the league path) progress to Round 2, which will decide the 12 teams joining holders Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Lyon and Chelsea, who will advance directly to the group stage matches in October, November and December.

Round 2 of Qualifying is played in two legs, with the First leg on September 18-19 and second leg on September 25-26, with the 16 team group stage draw the week after the final games are played. There were 58 games held in the First Round across the two paths, with teams from 49 UEFA associations participating in this season’s WCL. In all, 59 clubs were involved in Round 1, with three more starting in round 2 and four entering directly in the 16-team group stage. 

We focus on the key players and imports, particularly for those teams that were eliminated over this first weekend of UEFA WCL play, and then following the winners through subsequent matches. This week in part 1, we look at Groups 1-8 from the Champions path.

This year’s UEFA Women’s Champions League has nine debutants:

Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade of Serbia), Farul Constanta (Romania), First Vienna (Austria), Galatasaray (Turkey), Kolos Kovalivka (Ukraine), Neftçi (Azerbaijan), Nordsjælland (Denmark), Pogoń Szczecin (Poland) and Pyunik (Armenia). Neftci is the first team to enter the tournament from Azerbaijan since 2007/08. 

KÍ Klaksvík and Sarajevo are both entering for a joint-record 22nd season (including the pre-2009 UEFA Women's Cup) and are meeting for the first time. Sarajevo extends their outright record to 22 straight appearances. Brøndby, Gintra and Sparta Praha all are making their 21st entries.

Champions Path

Group 1 (hosts: SFK 2000 Sarajevo—Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Semi-finals

SFK 2000 Sarajevo (BIH) 3 vs KÍ Klaksvík (FRO) 0

SL Benfica (POR) 3 vs FC Nordsjælland (DEN) 1

Third Place 

KÍ Klaksvík (FRO) 0  vs FC Nordsjælland (DEN) 2

Final 

SFK 2000 Sarajevo (BIH) 0 vs SL Benfica (POR) 4

In the semifinals, Benfica’s 3-0 win over Nordsjaelland saw Spanish forward Cristina Martin-Prieto (31) score twice; she joined the Portuguese champions this year from Sevilla in Spain after two seasons at the club; she previously played five years with Tenerife. Three days later, Martin-Prieto scored again in the 25th minute as the Portuguese powerhouse built a 3-0 lead over Sarajevo at home, before finishing with a 4-0 victory.

KI Klaksvik’s only import was goalkeeper Kata Fanni Turi (19) of Hungary. She played the last three seasons with KI and won league titles with the club in 2022 and 2023.

FC Nordsjælland—the Danish Champions in 2023-24, had a number of imports including:

Goalkeeper—Molly Race (21)—Canada; she played at the University of British Colombia-Okanagan and has been with the club for two seasons.

Defender—Winonah Heatley (23)—Australia; she is in her third season with Nordsjaelland and has also played with Vaxjo in Sweden as well as Melbourne City and Brisbane Roar in the A-League Women.

Defender—Emmi Siren (23)—Finland; she is a full international for Finland who is in her second season with the club, playing in eight games in 2023-24. Siren transferred from KuPS of Finland, where she won two league championships.

Midfielder Malia Steinmetz (25)—New Zealand; she is in her second season with Nordsjaelland after two seasons with Western Sydney Wanderers in the A-League Women. She played for the Football Ferns at the 2016 U-17 WWC tournament in Jordan and consecutive U-20 tournaments in 2016 and 2018 in Papua New Guinea and France, respectively. She played at the 2023 senior Women’s World Cup at home last summer and in the 2024 Olympic Games Finals in Paris; she has over 25 caps with the senior side. 

Forward—Emilia Asgeirsdottir (19)—Iceland; a full international is in her fifth season with the club and scored 10 goals in 19 games last season.

SFK 2000 Sarajevo’s of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s entire roster was comprised of Bosnia-Herzegovina natives except for three imports from Serbia and two from Croatia. Miljana Smiljkovic (30) has played for Serbia at the international youth level and won two league titles in Greece with PAOK in 2020-21 and 2021-22; she signed with Sarajevo last month. Forward Veronika Terzic (24) is a Croatian international at the U-17, U-19 and full levels and played in 2023 in Cyprus; she is in her second season in Sarajevo and won the league title there last season. 

Group 2 (hosts: WFC Lanchkhuti--Georgia)

Semi-finals

KFF Vllaznia (ALB) 3 vs WFC Lanchkhuti (GEO) 0

SKN St. Pölten (AUT) 5 vs WFC Lanchkhuti (GEO) 0

Third Place

WFC Lanchkhuti (GEO) 2 vs Neftçi PFC (AZE) 1

Final

KFF Vllaznia (ALB) 0 vs SKN St. Pölten (AUT) 1

On September 4, St. Polten defeated Neftci Bak 5-0 as Austrian international Sophie Hillebrand (22) scored twice; she is in her third season at the club after a year each at Strum Graz and SV Neulengbach in the OFB Frauenliga top flight at home.

WFC Lanchkhuti’s of Georgia only had one import last season in Kristina Bakarandze (26), who was born in Georgia but played for Azerbaijan at international level with caps at the U-17, U-19 and the full national team level—she has transferred this season and is playing in Turkey with Galatasaray. This year, Lanchkhuti are heavy importers with three from the U.S., two from Colombia and one each from North Macedonia, Portugal and Turkey.

The imports from the Americas are:

Midfielder Vanessa Franco Giraldo (26)—Colombia; she played the last three seasons in Colombia with Deportivo Pereira in 2023 and La Equidad in 2022 and 2021 and previously with America de Cali and Manizales. With Manizales in 2017—her first year as a professional—the team finished league runners-up to Santa Fe.

Midfielder Paula Quiroga (19)—Colombia; she won a league title with Independiente Santa Fe at home.

Midfielder Hannah Russel (23)—United States; she finished college last season at St. Francis College-Brooklyn.

Forward Leslie Ramirez (28)—Guatemala: she was born and raised in California but plays internationally for Guatemala. She played at Cal State-Northridge and Cal State-Los Angeles and in Mexico with Guadalajara and Cruz Azul before moving to Georgia this year. She also played with ZFK Masinac Trace of Serbia in 2021.

Forward Kelly Giddes (25)—United States; in the past year she has played at Vllaznia in Albania and in the Queensland State League in Australia before joining the Georgian champions this past June. She played collegiately for the Palm Beach Atlantic University Sailfish in Florida.

For Neftci PFK, besides their core of local players from Azerbaijan, five have come from Turkey, all of whom are 23 or under except for former Turkish youth international Guzide Alcu (27), who played over 120 games with Amed S.K. at home before joining Neftci for the 2024-25 season. One of Neftci’s local players, defensive midfielder Nyah Petcu (18), is not on the UEFA roster as she has been planning to play collegiately in the States—she was born in British Colombia in Canada.

She attended the International School of Azerbaijan. She has played in the Azerbaijan Women’s First League and trained with the U-17 national team but could not play in UEFA games as she qualifies through her parents to play for either Canada and Romania. During the 2021/22 season, Neftçi PFK team won the U-17 National Championship. During the 2020/2021 season, she played in twelve games in the Romanian Women’s 1st League (Liga 1 Feminin) with FC Fair-Play Bucharest during the COVID pandemic. She has lived in Peru, Indonesia and Romania in addition to Azerbaijan.

KFF Vllaznia of Albania had five imports from the U.S., two from Kosovo and one from France—last year they had six from Brazil. Their five new Americans are:

Goalkeeper Dmitri Fong (26), who played at New Mexico State University.

Defender Mikayla Mustard (23), who played at St. Bonaventure University and Youngstown State University in Ohio last year as a graduate student.

Midfielder Santa Marie Pressley (23), who played collegiately at Coastal Carolina and the University of Louisiana-Monroe.

Forward Hannah Reynolds (26), who played at Tufts University in Massachusetts and the last two seasons in Turkey, with Hatayspor and Kdz. Eregli Belediye Spor.

Forward Raeanne Jones (22) is a native of California native and played with the Grand Canyon University Antelopes in Phoenix and then Western Oregon University Wolves in Monmouth, Oregon.

Group 3 (hosts: FC Gintra)

Semi-finals

KuPS Kuopio (FIN) 1 vs Celtic FC Women (SCO) 3 AET

FC Gintra (LTU) 5 vs Agarista CSF Anenii Noi 2020 (MDA) 0

Third Place

KuPS Kuopio (FIN) 6 vs Agarista CSF Anenii Noi 2020 (MDA) 0

Final

Celtic FC Women (SCO) 2 vs FC Gintra (LTU) 0 

On September 4 in the semifinals, Celtic used a hat trick from second half substitute Saoirse Noonan (25) of the Republic of Ireland to dispatch KuPS of Finland 3-1, while the Finnish champions took the lead through Roosa Ariyo (30) of Nigeria, who was born in Finland and has played in Spain and Sweden in the past; she scored in the 18th minute and KuPS held the lead until the 64th minute.

Noonan said after the game: “I don’t think I ever thought that we were going to lose. I knew there were chances there and I knew someone was going to get on the end of something so yeah, I was delighted. As a striker that’s what I’m brought on to do. First of all, coming into the Champions League, I was saying to my parents (to) just enjoy the experience. My first hat-trick with the club, my first hat-trick in the Champions League, it was a nice day.”

She previously played at her hometown side Cork City and Shelbourne in the Republic of Ireland. 

In the other semifinal, South African international Thubelihle Shamase (22) scored four goals for Gintra in their 5-1 win over the Moldovan champions. She joined Gintra this past March from the University of South Africa. She played at the U-17 level for Botswana.

In the third place game on September 7, Ariyo scored the first two goals of the game within nine minutes to power the Finnish champions to a 6-0 win over Agarista CSF Anenii Noi 2020. In the group final, Celtic used goals by Scottish youth international Shannon McGregor (24) in the 21st minute and a clincher by American Kit Loferski (26) in the 81st minute. McGregor signed a three year deal with Celtic in June after playing in 125 games for Hibernians over seven seasons.

She told CelticTV upon signing with the club that: “This is a dream come true for me. I’m a huge Celtic fan so I’m over the moon. It’s going to be a huge change for me but it’s something I’m really looking forward to. The whole set-up at the club seems amazing. I’ve always looked at Celtic as a team where I really like the style of play and I could always see myself fitting into that positive play.”

Loferski, who scored 12 goals in all competitions last season for Celtic, signed a two year contract extension through the 2025-26 season in July. She played collegiately at the University of Florida.

KuPS Kupio utilized three imports who all played with the side last season: 

Defender—Kaela Hansen (24)—Canada; who has played in 14 league games thus far this year; she first started with ZFK Spartak Subotica in Serbia after her college career at the University of Kansas. She has been capped by Canada at multiple youth levels.

Forward—Ana Paula Silva Santos ‘Paulinha’ (26)—Brazil; she is in her second year with the Finnish champions and previously played in Iceland at Keflavik.

Forward—Gentjana Rochi (29)—North Macedonia--the North Macedonian international has scored 11 goals in 13 games thus far this year—the prolific goalscorer has 100 tallies in 116 games at KuPS. She is in her sixth season with the club and has played professionally in Germany before moving to Finland in 2017 with JyPK She has over 50 full national caps for North Macedonia.

Agarista Anenii Noi is now in their seventh season in the WCL and is still looking for their first victory—they have scored one goal (in a 4-1 loss to Vllaznia in their first campaign in 2018-19) and allowed 69 in 12 matches after the 2024-25 matches. Agarista CSF Anenii Noi used an all-Moldovan side except for forward Yelyzaveta Indycha (21) of Ukraine, who is in her sixth season with the Moldovan club, having won four league titles and finished as runner-up in 2021-22.  

Gintra of Lithuania in 2024-25 is playing in their  21st European Club Championship tournament and utilized ten imports in total: four Americans, three from Finland, two from South Africa and one from Brazil. 

The imports from the Americas were:

Defender Rashida Beal (29)—U.S.; she played at the University of Minnesota and FC Kansas City in 2017, and also in Germany, Romania and Turkey, before joining Gintra in July

Defender Sabrina Amorim (20)—Brazil; she played most recently at Corinthians of Sao Paulo at home.

Defender Elena Peabody (23)—U.S.; she played at Campbell University in North Carolina.

Midfielder Kaya Hawkinson (24)—U.S.; she grew up in California, played at Cal-State-Fullerton and is a full international for the Philippines. She played last season with the Central Coast Mariners in Australia’s A-League Women and was an alternate for the 2023 WWC Finals side.

Forward Trista Seara (26)—U.S.; she played at NCAA Division II Mercy College in New York and has played in Spain, Greece and with Eregli Belediye Spor last season in Turkey.

The two from South Africa were:

Midfielder Thubelihle Shamase (22)—South Africa (see above).

Forward Sphumelele Shamase (22)—South Africa; she came to Gintra this summer with her twin sister Thubelihle from the University of Johannesburg; she played at the youth level for Botswana and is a senior international for South Africa.

Gintra has a new head coach in Ollipekka Ojala of Finland, who formerly coached Kuopion Palloseura of Finland in the UEFA WCL; he took over from Kaloyan Petrov, who moved back to BIIK in Kazakhstan, where he made the club into a regional power and coached the Kazakhstan WNT on two occasions.

Group 4 (hosts: Birkirkara FC)

Semi-finals

FK Breznica (MNE) 1 vs Birkirkara FC (MLT) 2 AET

RSC Anderlecht (BEL) 4 vs ŽFK Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) (SRB) 1

Third Place

ŽFK Crvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) (SRB) 3 vs FK Breznica (MNE) 0

Final

RSC Anderlecht (BEL) 5 vs Birkirkara FC (MLT) 0

On September 4, Anderlecht coasted against Red Star Belgrade, building a 2-0 lead by the 19th minute and not surrendering a goal until five minutes into second half injury time. In the last match of the day of 29 WCL games due to extra time in Ta’Qali, Japanese import Yuna Hazekawa (21) scored her second goal of the game in the 109th minute from the penalty spot for Birkirkara’s 2-1 win over Breznica. Hazekawa first scored in the 60th minute from the run of play to tie up the match after Marijana Jankov’s early goal in the 17th minute (see more on Jankov below). Birkirkara defeated Breznica 1-0 in last season’s WCL Round 1 semi-finals

On September 7, Nina Matejic (19) scored a hat-trick for Red Star in their 3-0 win over Breznica in the third place match. She scored in her full national team debut in a 5-1 away to loss to Germany in 2022 WWC Qualifying in September of 2021 and since has played for the U-17 and U-19 teams as well as the full team. She could be moving on within the next year with her consistent scoring for the national team and Red Star.

Breznica Pljevlja had a roster comprised entirely with players from Montenegro except for three imports from Serbia: 

Goalkeeper Tiana Milisavljevic (25) is in her second season with the club.

Defender Marijana Jankov (29) has been capped by Serbia at the youth and senior level and won four league titles in Montenegro. She is in the second year of her second stint with the club.

Midfielder Milijana Pavlovic (21) is new this season.

Red Star Belgrade’s imports came from Bosnia-Herzegovina (2), Montenegro (1), Bulgaria (1) and Ghana (1). Bulgarian international goalkeeper Roksana Shahanska (32) won four league titles at home with NSA Sofia and is playing abroad for the first time. Ghanian international forward Philomena Abakah (21) has recently joined her first European club after playing at home with Ampem Darkoa and in Tanzania with Simba Queens, who won the Central Africa Football Association regional club title in 2022.

Birkirkara of Malta used four imports—two from Brazil and one each from Japan and the U.S.:

Midfielder Yuna Hazekawa (21)—Japan, who played at Cumberland University.

Midfielder Calista Bonnie Schechinger (23)—U.S., who played at Missouri State University.

Midfielder Luana Vitoria Lourenco Cabral (24)—Brazil, who joined the team from Portuguesa of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Forward Erica Oliveira Bispo (25)—Brazil, has played the last five seasons in Portugal for five different clubs.

Group 5 (hosts: FC Twente)

Semi-finals

FC Twente (NED) 7 vs Cardiff City FC Women (WAL) 0

Valur (ISL) 10 vs ŽFK Ljuboten (MKD) 0

Third Place

Cardiff City (WAL) 0 vs ŽFK Ljuboten (MKD) 2

Final

Twente (NED) 5 vs. Valur (ISL) 0

In the September 4 semifinals, Netherlands international Kayleigh Van Dooren (25), in her fourth season at the club, scored a brace within the first 20 minutes of the match to power Twente to a 7-0 win over Wales’ side Cardiff City. In the other match in the group, Valur raced to a 4-0 lead by the 18th minute and Isabella Tryggvadottir (18) had a second half hat-trick, while Jasmin Ingadottir (25) had a brace in their 10-0 win over Ljuboten.

In the September 7 games, North Macedonian international forward Hava Mustafa (26) scored a goal in each half in their 2-0 win over Cardiff in the third place game. In the final, Netherlands youth international Charlotte Hulst (22) scored two goals in the first half of Twente’s 5-0 win over Valur of Iceland. Fellow Netherlands international Nikee Van Dijk (21) added a goal in each half in her first season with the club, which has already won the Super Cup in 2024-25 after a 6-1 win over Ajax on August 31, in which Van Dooren scored a hat-trick.

For Cardiff City, last year they had only one import (from the Cayman Islands) but this year had four—three from England, including midfielder Kerry Walklett (29)—who formerly played with West Bromwich Albion (WBA) in the Championship and is in England’s national futsal side player pool—and forward Molly Kehoe (20) from the Cayman Islands is back.

This year, Ljuboten who are in their third consecutive WCL campaign after winning the last three North Macedonia league titles, went away from Brazilian imports (having four in the WCL in 2023-24 and three in 2022-23) to Colombians, with four along with one player from Serbia. Their imports from Colombia are:

Goalkeeper Karen Alejandra Rodriguez Espinosa (24)—she played the last two seasons at home with Deportivo Pasto.

Midfielder Paula Alexandra Valbuena Novoa (25)—she scored 7 goals in the past two seasons at home with La Equidad in 2024 and Deportes Tolima in 2023.

Forward Karina Michelle Bermudez (24)—she was born and raised in the U.S. and played the last two seasons with Industriales in Colombia after college at the University of North Florida.

Forward Ingrid Vidal (33)—she has over 50 caps for the Colombian WNT and played the last three seasons with America de Cali, winning the league title in 2022. She played at the University of Kansas.

Valur (ISL)’s only two imports this season were from the States:

Defender Hailey Whitaker (24), who played last season at Aland United in Finland. At Auburn University in Alabama, she finished her five year career second in program history for the number of games played (94). 

Midfielder Katherine ‘Katie’ Cousins (27) was on the Angel City FC roster in 2022 and has also played two seasons with Throttur Reykjavik. She had 2 goals in 19 league games this season. She played for the U.S. at the 2016 U-20 WWC in Papua New Guinea.

Group 6 (hosts: Apollon Ladies FC)

Semi-finals

Apollon Ladies FC (CYP) 3 vs Pyunik Women (ARM) 0

ŽNK Mura (SVN) 3 vs Glentoran Women (NIR) 2

Third Place

Glentoran Women (NIR) 1 vs Pyunik Women (ARM) 0

Final 

ŽNK Mura (SVN) 3 vs Apollon Ladies FC (CYP) 2

On September 4, Apollon used goals by Haitian international Hudson Surpris (27) and Elizabeth Oppong (21) of Ghana to defeat Pyunik of Armenia 3-0. In the other semifinal, Mura held a 3-0 lead at the 56th minute but had to repel a furious Glentoran fight back, who pulled within one goal in the 71st minute on two goals by scoring twice within 12 minutes, but couldn’t score another goal to tie up the entertaining match.

On September 7, in the third place match, Glentoran used a goal about 10 minutes from half time by Northern Ireland international forward Emily Wilson (23) to defeat Pyunik 1-0. In the final, ZNK Mura upset host side Apollon 3-2, jumping off to a 2-0 lead by the hour mark through Slovenian international midfielder Sara Makovec (24)—who joined the club this summer from Pomurje, where she won league titles in four of the last five seasons—and Slovenian youth international defender Tija Sostaric (19), who won two league titles at Pomurje before moving to Sturm Graz in Austria for a season in 2023-24.

Apollon tied it up with goals from Belgium international Celien Guns (26) in the 38th minute and then from Cyprian international (American-born and raised) forward Kristina Freda in the 79th minute. Makovec scored her second goal of the game five minute later to send Mura onto the Second Round of Qualifying/Round of 32 stage for the third time in 12 Women’s Champions League/Women’s Cup campaigns

In the 2023/24 season, the Pyunik women’s team played in the Armenian Premier League for the first time and won the league title. Head coach Armen Bareghamyan said at the start of the 2023-24 Premier league, after winning the 2022-23 First League title: “Our goal has not changed since last season. As in the First League, we will do our best to finish the championship on the first place. The lineup has changed almost completely: experienced players have joined the team.”

The league has five teams and plays 30 matches during the regular season.

In last week’s column, we reviewed Bam Khatoon of Iran’s progress to the group stage of the 2024-25 Asian Women’s Champions League (see: The Week in Women's Football: NWSL (& Tribalfootball) welcome new signings; AFC Club Championship review - TribalFootball.com). Uniquely, the Armenian champions have four Iranian internationals playing in the side: goalkeeper Mina Nafeei (25), defender Fatemeh Adeli (29), defender Shaghayegh Rouzbahan (29) and forward Hajar Dabbaghi (25). We suspect that the Iranian Football Federation arranged a package deal with Pyunik to give some of their key international players a different competitive situation to deal with as well as an opportunity to earn some money for their efforts.

We have seen this on the men’s side in the past where a number of top international players will train with a side abroad—Cuba has done this with a German lower tier side years ago and their general manager once told me that they were open to doing the same in other markets. In this case, the Iranians are playing with a top tier side in Armenia which is also competing in the European Women’s Champions League—so it benefits everyone involved. We reached out to the Armenian side to discuss if this was indeed the arrangement with the Iran’s FF and their future plans to build off of their initial league title last season and first campaign in Europe and are still waiting for a response. Pyunik in their debut games in Europe did quite well and were competitive in their two WCL matches; they should be encouraged to continue their innovative squad building approach with imports and should be quite pleased with their performances.

Other imports this season for Pyunik are:

Defender Ellen Coleman (28)—Ghana; she was called into Ghana’s full national side for the 2018 Women’s African Cup of Nations.

Midfielder Mary Essiful (31)—Ghana; she has played at home and in Nigeria with Rivers Angels before playing in Armenia.

Defender Martha Appiah (22)—Ghana; she is a full international and played last season in the African Women’s Champions League Finals with Arpem Darkoa of Ghana, who lost the third place match to host side FAR of Morocco 2-0.

Defender Ximena Alexandra Mideros (26)—Colombia; she played the past two seasons in Saudi Arabia with Eastern Flames and also played a season in Israel with Maccabi Kishronot Hadera.

Midfielder Suzuho Yamasaki (24)—Japan; she played at the University of Tennessee Southern.

Forward Lara Pintassilgo (21) of Portugal; she is a youth international who won two league titles at Benfica and joined the Armenian side this summer.

Glentoran of Belfast, Northern Ireland used a squad built entirely with Northern Ireland nationals except for forward Ellie Butler (23) of England. Butler played in 2022-23 for Coventry City in the English Championship and previously played for Bristol City and Tottenham Hotspur.

Apollon of Cyprus is always a liberal importer and this season had 11, with six from the U.S. (with one playing for Haiti at the full international level) and one each from Belgium, England, Germany, Ghana and Spain.

Their six American imports were:

Defender Kacey Jean La Boda (23)—U.S.; she finished her college career last fall at Seattle University. She played as a youth with the Washington Rush team, which won the National Premier League title in 2016.

Defender Chelsea Surpris (27)—Haiti; she was born in the U.S. but plays internationally for Haiti. She won the league title last season with Apollon and has also played briefly in Soyaux in France in 2020-21 and then with Yzeure Allier and Grenoble, where her 2023 WWC coach Nicolas Delepine has coached since 2020.

Midfielder Francesca Paige Frericks (24)—U.S.; she won a league title with Albanian side KFF Vllaznia in 2023-24 before joining ACS Banat in Romania in the Spring of 2024, scoring five goals and adding four assists. She played at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

American midfielder Francesca Paige Frericks (24) is in her first season in Cyprus after playing in Albania and Romania. Photo courtesy Apollon Limassol FC Women.

Forward Sydney Alexandra Elinksy (28)—U.S.; she played at the Universities of Illinois and North Carolina. The Houston Dash drafted her in the third round (30th selection overall) of the 2018 College Draft but she was released early in the season. She moved to the Orlando Pride as a National Team Replacement player and played in 24 games across the 2018, 2019 and COVID-shortened 2020 season. In 2018, she played in France’s Division 2 Feminine with ASPTT Albi and scored six goals in 12 appearances returning to Orlando for the 2019 season.

Forward Megan Ann Nemec (23)—U.S.; she played her graduate year in 2023 at the University of Minnesota after playing at Loyola University-Chicago.

Forward Allison Patricia Clark (23)—U.S.; she played earlier this year with Odense of Denmark, scoring once in 10 games, and then joined Apollon. She played at Siena College in Upstate New York.

Note: Forward Krystyna Freda (30), who plays internationally for Cyprus, spent last season with Hibernian in Scotland and has also played in Finland after playing at Winthrop University in South Carolina. She grew up in the States. Steffi Hardy (28), who grew up in England, is also a naturalized citizen of Cyprus and now plays for them internationally. She has won the last four league titles in Cyprus with Apollon.

Other imports included:

Goalkeeper Marta Alemny (26) of Spain; she played 34 games for Queretaro of Liga MX Femenil last season and 64 in two seasons with the Gallos Blancos. She finished second to Japan (2-0) in the 2014 U-17 WWC with Spain in Costa Rica. In the States, she played at Monroe Community College in New Jersey, winning a national junior college title in 2018 and then went to Long Beach State University in California; she played for Barcelona in Spain as a teenager.

Defender Rachel Priscilla Avant (30) of Germany; she played last season for Sturm Graz in Austria after playing in Iceland with FH, France with Soyaux and then in Germany with Saarbrucken, Werder Bremen and Frankfurt, and also in Sweden with Kungsbacken in the second tier Elitettan in 2016.

Midfielder Celien Guns (26) of Belgium; she scored 24 goals in four seasons with Club Brugge before joining Apollon this summer. She has been capped at the senior level and multiple youth levels by Belgium. She played one season in neighboring Netherlands with Heerenveen in 2019-20.

Midfielder Elizabeth Oppong (21) of Ghana has played with Ghana’s U-17 national team and won the last three league titles at Apollon.

Forward Natasha Lily Hudson (23) is a native of England.

Group 7 (hosts: Pogoń Szczecin)

Semi-finals

A.C. PAOK (GRE) 2 vs F.C. Qiryat Gat (ISR) 1 AET

Servette FC Chênois Féminin (SUI) 1 vs Pogoń Szczecin (POL) 0

Third Place

F.C. Qiryat Gat (ISR) 0 vs Pogoń Szczecin (POL) 1

Final

A.C. PAOK (GRE) 0 vs Servette FC Chênois Féminin (SUI) 2

On September 4, Rimante Jonusaite (20) of Lithuania scored the only goal for Geneva side Servette two minutes into second half injury time to give her side the win. This is her second season with Servette on loan after three seasons with AC Milan in Italy, where she scored four goals in 11 games last season. Two years ago in 2021-22, the club made the 16 team WCL group stage—and that looked on the cards again after the first match. For PAOK, Asa Helmvall (31) of Sweden scored in the 11th minute to give her side the win in overtime. She won a league title with PAOK last season after winning a Cyprus league title in 2022-23 with Apollon. Previously she played three seasons in Italy—one with Sampdoria and two with Bari.

On September 7 American Jaelyn Crim scored the only goal of the game in the 11th minute for Pogon in their 1-0 win over Qiryat Gat. In the final, Lithuanian international Rimante Jonusaite (20) scored from the penalty spot in the 67th minute—she scored four goals in 11 games in 2023-24 in her first season with Servette after moving on loan after three seasons in Milan in Italy—and defender Manon Revelli (22) scored in the 91st minute. Revelli joined the club this season after three seasons at Guingamp where she played in 63 games. She played in multiple France youth international sides and won the U-19 Championship in 2019 in Scotland with a 2-1 win over Germany. Revelli also was on Lyon’s WCL winning side in 2019-20. 

Qiryat Gat of Israel utilized five imports, with four from Brazil and one from Portugal.

Qiryat’s Brazilians were:

D Ana Carol (34), she played the past five seasons with Sporting Huelva in Spain.

M Sandra (Sandrinha) Perieira (39), who played for years at Santos and won a Copa Libertadores Femenina in 2018 there; she is in her third season at Kiryat Gat and won the last two Israeli league titles and state cups with the team.

F Danyelle Helena Da Silva (32); she played earlier this year in Brazil with Real Brasilia and has spent three years in Spain, two with Sporting de Huelva and one with Logrono.

F Raiza Santos (34), she previously played with Real Brasilia at home, where she won two Brazilian titles in 2022 and 2023. She has also played in Spain and Sweden.

The other import was Portugal’s Jessica Pastilha (28), who was born in Luxembourg but is registered as a Portuguese international. Pastilha played in Portugal and won a division 2 title with Clube Atletico Ouriense and has played futsal competitively.

Pogon Szczecin of Poland are WCL debutants and their imports were:

Jaylen Crim (25) is an American who played at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California and with Hapoel Ra’anana and Maccabi Kishronot Hadera in Israel before joining Pogon for the 2023-24 season, where she scored nine goals in 21 matches during the 2023-24 season.

The two other imports for Pogon were defender Androniki Michalopoulou (26) of Greece and Slovenian international midfielder Luana Zajmi (22,) who has been on the rosters of Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City in England, with Split in Croatia in 2022-23 and played 10 games earlier this season in Turkey with ALG Spor.

PAOK had seven imports, with one each from Brazil, Colombia, India, Luxembourg, Sweden, the United States and Uruguay:

GK Dani Neuhaus (31)—Brazil; she has played at home and in Portugal with Benfica for three years from 2018-21; she has been capped at the senior level and played at the 2008 and 2010 U-17 and 2012 U-20 WWC Finals for Brazil.

D Antonia Ferradans (23)—Uruguay; she is a full international who won a league title at home with Nacional. She was on Uruguay’s U-17 Women’s World Cup side in 2018, which her nation hosted.

M Marta Estevez (27)—Luxembourg; she was born in Spain but plays internationally for Luxembourg and joined PAOK after two seasons with Racing FC Union at home.

M Lady Andrade (32)—Colombia; she is an icon at home and played at the 2011, 2015 and 2023 WWCs, making the Round of 16 in the latter two tournament in Canada and Australia/New Zealand. She won the Women’s Pan Am Games title in 2019 in Peru. She has played for multiple sides at home, in Spain, Finland, in the NWSL with the Western New York Flash, Turkey, Italy, Panama, Brazil and joined PAOK this summer. She won a NWSL league title in 2013 and a Brazilian national league title last year with Real Brasilia.

F Manisha Kalyan (22)—India; she won league titles and played in the WCL the last two seasons with Apollon in Cyprus. Kalyan was the first woman from her country to win a European league title and play in the WCL, and is an Indian international—(see her profile from two years ago: The Week in Women's Football: Annual review of UEFA Champions League qualifying group stage - Tribal Football). She moved to PAOK in July.

F Eva Vlassopoulos (25)—USA; she played at the University of Redlands in California, scoring 20 goals with 8 assists in 62 games. She is in her second stint with PAOK. Two years ago, she joined PAOK and scored twice in a 2-0 win over Swansea in the Round 1 semifinal of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. She then sustained a pre-season injury. In 2023-24, she joined Spartak Subotica, the Serbian champions, making 10 appearances and scoring two goals with six assists. She then moved to Israel to join Hapoel Tikva, however the league was suspended due to the war in Gaza.

F Asa Emelie Helmvall (31)—Sweden; she is in her second season with PAOK and played in Cyprus, Italy, Norway and at home for a number of clubs in Sweden.

A domestic player to watch at PAOK is forward Nikoleta Kalesi (20); she is a youth international for Greece and won league titles over the past two seasons for PAOK.

Group 8 (hosts: Racing FC Union Luxembourg)

Semi-finals

WFC BIIK-Shymkent (KAZ) 3 vs FC NSA Sofia (BUL) 0

Racing FC Union Luxembourg (LUX) 1 vs Galatasaray A.Ş. (TUR) 4

Third Place

FC NSA Sofia (BUL) 0 vs Racing FC Union Luxembourg (LUX) 2

Final    

WFC BIIK-Shymkent (KAZ) 0 vs Galatasaray A.Ş. (TUR) 5

On September 4, Georgia international forward Guinara Gabelia (39) scored twice for BIIK-Shymkent of Kazakhstan to make the final—she has won seven league titles with the side since 2017. On September 7, Galatasaray exploded for five goals while shutting out BIIK 5-0. Galatasaray, on their WCL debut, used a hat-trick from recent teenage Senegalese signing Diallo Hapsatou Malado (19); they thus became the first Turkish team to advance in a WCL round in 11 seasons.

Czechia international forward Andrea Staskova (24)—who scored six goals in 21 games last season with Milan in Italy—and Colombian international Catalina Usme—who moved to Turkey for this season after scoring 38 goals in 52 games in three campaigns with America de Cali at home—added single scores. Also on September 7, Sophie Quatrana (32) of Germany scored two goals within 10 minutes mid-way through the second half to give Racing third place in their group with a 2-0 win over NSA Sofia.

NSA Sofia only registered one import for the 2024-25 UEFA WCL in defender Jessica Coates (31) of Australia—won the title last season in Sofia. She played collegiately for four seasons from 2012-2016 at Nicholls State in Louisiana, where she was third all-time in goals scored with 21 and leads the all-time list in assists with 19. She won two Women’s New South Wales state titles for Australian Vikings and Marconi Stallions prior to going to the States to study.

Racing FC Union of Luxembourg had eight imports from France, two registered with the Republic of Ireland and one each from Norway and Portugal. Midfielder Aoibhe Moran (19) who was born in Luxembourg but qualifies for the Republic of Ireland and won the last two league titles with Racing. Clodagh Moran (18) was born in Ireland and also won last two league titles in Luxembourg. Marwa El Mrizak (21) is a midfielder who joined the team this season—she is a native of Norway and also qualifies to play for Morocco through FIFA parentage rules.

BIIK is in its 18th season in the UEFA Women’s Cup/Champions League. Kaloyan Petkov moved back to BIIK in Kazakhstan late this summer, where he made the club into a regional power though the country now only has one WCL participant every year—BIIK’s success in the past had driven them up the rankings to earn two WCL spots for the country but they just missed out behind Belarus and Iceland in UEFA’s coefficient calculation this year.

BIIK utilized 13 imports and, just before the start of the WCL, Kaloyan Petkov was looking for a center back in the States. BIIK had four imports from the U.S., two from Nigeria, two from Ghana and two from Brazil, and one each from Cameroon, Georgia and Trinidad and Tobago. Forward Maria-Frances Serrant (21) is from Trinidad and Tobago. She has played at Corban University in Salem, Oregon and West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas. She has been capped by T&T at multiple youth and the full national team level.

The Americans at BIIK this season include three from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee:

Defender Mckaela Schmelzer (27) played at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and in Greece with Atromitos F.C. in Athens for the past two seasons. In the off-season, she also played semi-professional basketball with the Rockford, Illinois Lightning in her hometown.

She talked about the difference in style in Greece compared with the U.S.: “I feel like in the U.S. here, we prioritize more like the strength and conditioning side of stuff, whereas they’re more crafty (with their) IQ in their game; it’s a little slower than ours.”

She had to cut back on her fouls in Greece due to the more physical tyle of play that she came from.

Defender Clara Broecker (22) finished college after the 2023 season at Midwest powerhouse Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Defender Maya Neal (27)—she played at the University of Tennessee. Born in America, she represented Liberia in Athletics (Track and Field at the 2016 African Championships). She has also played football in France with Le Harve and Iceland with Afturelding Mosfellsbaer.

Midfielder Brooke Parnello (23)—she is another recent University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee graduate.

Belarus review—club and international update

Belarus, though closely entwined with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent suspension from FIFA club and international competitions, continues to participate in the UEFA Women’s Champions League and in their national team tournaments—we will review Dinamo BGU’s matches over the next two weeks in the WCL.

Looking at the league, this season has thrown up a dandy race for the league title between Dinamo BGU and Minsk, with both tied on 52 points with astounding goal differences. Dinamo has a 17-1-0 (W-D-L) record from 18 games, scoring 143 times and allowing only six goals for a +137 goal difference, while Minsk is 17-1-1 with 117 goals for and only four allowed for a +113 goal difference. Dinamo defeated Minsk at home early in the season (2-1) for their opponent’s only loss on May 13; the two teams then tied away 1-1 on August 11.

Dinamo is in the driver’s seat for the 2024 title with their game in hand and their last match is set for October 1 against fourth place side ABFF U-19, who have a 11-3-4 record for 36 points, with 68 goals scored and 23 allowed for a +45 goal difference. ABFF is currently nine points out of third place behind Zorka-BDU’s 15-0-4 record for 45 points, scoring 86 goals with 12 allowed for a +74 goal difference.

Spare a thought for the bottom two clubs in the 11 team league: DYuSSh-PolesGU has a 2-0-18 record for 6 points and 11 goals scored versus 177 allowed for a -166 goal difference, while bottom side Smorgon has a 1-1-17 record for four points and has only scored seven goals all season while allowing 149 for a -142 goal difference.

The war in neighboring Ukraine has affected the lure of the league to imports. First place Dinamo BGU FK, fourth place ABFF U-19, seventh place Dnepro Mogilev, eighth place Bobruichanka and the two bottom clubs: DYuSSh-PolesGU and Smorgon, all had entire Belarus squads with no imports. The other five teams’ imports include:

Russia 9 

Mozambique 2

Kazakhstan 1

Ukraine 1

Ninth place Gomels’ (10 points) only import is Mariia Hlushchenko (18) of Ukraine, who joined Gomel this season from Smorgon, where she played in 13 games last season on loan from Minsk.

Minsk has the most imports with four—along with fifth place FC Vitebsk (31 points)—with two from Mozambique, one from Russia and one from Kazakhstan.

Forward Cidalia Daniel Cuta ‘Ninika’ (25) of Mozambique has 15 goals in 17 games this season. She has played for Costa do Sol in Mozambique, Young Buffaloes in Mbabane, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and Yanga Princess in Tanzania. She joined Minsk ahead of this season

Midfielder Lonica Vasco Tsanwane ‘Lonica’ (27) of Mozambique has 4 goals in 12 games this season.

Goalkeeper Alena Gryaznova (32) of Russia played at home for four seasons with Mordovochka, five seasons with Chertanovo and one for Zenit St. Petersburg. She has played the last two seasons in Minsk—where she started 21 games in 2023 and 13 this season. She also played two seasons at BIIK in Kazakhstan and is a full international.

Defender Mariya Demidova (27) of Kazakhstan won five consecutive titles at home with BIIK and has one goal in 13 games (all starts) from the back this season. She is a current full international with Kazakhstan and appeared during this season’s EURO Qualifiers, anchoring the defense in a 0-0 draw away to Bulgaria in July.

As of the end of August, only two of the top eight scorers in the league are imports (indeed, they are the only imports among the top 47 league scorers in 2024, among players who have five or more goals this season), including Russian midfielder Ekaterina Forlova (25) of Zorka, who is in her first season in the league after time in Russia with Krylya Sovetov, Krasnodar, Torpedo Izhevsk and Lokomotiv Moscow, and is tied for second with 19 goals with Dinamo-BGU’s senior Belarus international Anastasia Shuppo (26), who has won five league titles at home with Dinamo BGU (three) and Minsk (two).

They trail the leader Alina Koroshchak (19), also of Dinamo BGU, who has 20 goals after scoring 14 goals last season with ABFF U-19 in 25 games—she previously won league titles at Dinamo-BGU in 2021 and 2022 and has been capped by Belarus at the U-17 and U-19 levels. In fourth on the scorer’s table is former Belarus U-17 and U-19 international  Karolina Zhitko (24) of Dnepr Mogilev with 17 goals, followed by Belarus international Yana Artishevskaya (23) of Dinamo-BGU and U-19 Belarus international Alexsandra Samoylova (18) of Minsk, who both have 16. Tied for seventh on 15 goals is the other import at the top of the goal scorers’ table—Ninika of Mozambique (see above)—and Ekaterina Yanchilenko (27) of Vitebsk—who played for Belarus at the U-17 and U-19 levels but was born in the Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzstan of the Asian Football Confederation).

At the national team level, Belarus finished first in League C and Group C1 in the 2025 Women’s EURO Qualifiers this year by winning all six of their group games (18 points) against Georgia (10 points), Lithuania (7 points)—though Lithuania forfeited their games (logged as 3-0 victories for Belarus) to protest Belarus’ involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine and had to pay a fine of $5,000 Euros—and Cyprus (0 points). Belarus scored 19 goals and allowed none.

They were promoted to League B for the next UEFA Women’s Nations League and made the playoffs for the 2025 Women’s EURO in Switzerland—facing Czech Republic home and away on October 25 and 29. If they win, they will play either Azerbaijan or more likely Portugal from their first round tie in late November/early December, with the winner qualifying for Switzerland.

Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football.  His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football.  Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey